Una beca para hacer la tesis en la Universidad de Uppsala

A Swedish research council (VR) funded four year PhD position is available in Uppsala, Sweden, jointly supervised by Dr Graham Budd (Uppsala) and Dr Gregory Edgecombe (NHM, London). PhD position in: New approaches to the origin of insects

The origins of the hexapods including the insects remains one of the most challenging problems in evolutionary zoology. The traditional bonds between the myriapods and insects in the “Atelocerata” have been largely abandoned on the basis of molecular and neurobiological results. Insects are indeed now often seen as an ingroup of the crustaceans – although if so, their sister group is unclear: a branchiopod relationship is currently considered most likely. A further complication is that the traditional view of the insects being united with springtails (collembolans) in the Hexapoda has also been challenged by molecular results, which sometimes place springtails as the sister group to other crustaceans. In the light of these new hypotheses, we intend to re-examine the already known fossil material of purported early hexapods and early crustaceans to search for specific synapomorphies, particularly in the head regions, where available. The re-examination of the fossil material in the context of the new phylogeny is long overdue, and will be integrated with morphological analysis of living crustaceans and hexapods to evaluate the anatomical and functional consequences of alternative crustacean sister groups to Hexapoda

This position is shortly to be announced formally by Uppsala Unversity, but in the meantime we invite expressions of interest, including a full CV and names of two referees, to be sent to Graham Budd at graham.budd@pal.uu.se by 28th February 2009.